Quinnipiac Tops Central; Gives Coach His 100th Career Win

HAMDEN — — If Thursday night wasn't a time for Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore to celebrate — no coach truly celebrates mid-season — it was an opportunity at least to breathe easy, perhaps take stock of his six-year run at Quinnipiac and his team's months-long effort to find perimeter scoring.

Shaq Shannon scored a career-high 18 points, making six of the Bobcats' season-high eight three-pointers, and Quinnipiac defeated Central Connecticut 85-78 in a Northeast Conference basketball game before a crowd of 2,073 at TD Bank Sports Center.

"It feels really nice for us to make eight three-pointers," Moore said. "It felt like about 20. It's been a chore for us to generate offense outside the arc."

Moore's 100th career victory (he is 100-77) came against his close friend, Central coach Howie Dickenman, and played out with his mentor, former UConn coach Jim Calhoun, watching from press row. Calhoun, honored before the game for his contributions to basketball in the state, spoke to the Quinnipiac players after the game.

"Once a coach, always a coach," Moore said. "You could just feel his energy talking to our team. He loves the locker room, loves talking to young men, loves spreading the right message. He talked for about five minutes and it was probably more impactful than anything I can say the rest of the season."

Ike Azotam added 13 points and 17 rebounds, his eighth double-double of the season, for Quinnipiac (7-12, 3-4 NEC). Zaid Hearst had 17 points and Jamee Jackson had 14 points and eight rebounds. The Bobcats had a 51-31 rebounding edge.

Central's Kyle Vinales reached 30 points for the fourth time this season and sixth time in his career, finishing with 32 points for Central (7-11, 3-4 NEC), which has lost three of four. A sophomore, Vinales has 924 points in 47 career games

Matt Hunter had 13 points and Malcolm McMillan (who is 8-for-9 on three-pointers the past two games) and Joe Efese had 10 apiece. Brandon Peel, the Blue Devils' best rebounder this month, left the game after six minutes with a sprained left ankle and did not return.

"It was a factor but not a reason why we lost," Dickenman said. "You can look at it that way. We did say earlier that this would be a big test for him, but it just didn't work out. [McMillan] put this team on this back and carried the load. I feel bad for him and feel bad for everyone."

Quinnipiac has won eight in a row over Central, which still leads the all-time series 50-22. With Quinnipiac leaving the NEC for the MAAC next season, this was the final meeting between the teams as conference rivals at TD Bank. They meet again Feb. 9 in New Britain. Neither Moore nor Dickenman, both former UConn assistants, knew if the series would continue as part of the non-conference schedule in 2013-14. Dickenman typically chooses not to schedule games against friends.

Both teams shot relatively well, Quinnipiac 47 percent and Central 46.9. Quinnipiac made 15 of 22 free throws and Central 6 of 14. Quinnipiac will look to win two games in a row for the first time all season Saturday at home against Fairleigh Dickinson.

Central, which took a one-point lead with 12-plus minutes remaining, stayed within striking distance until the final possessions, when Quinnipiac kept finding scoring answers against a worn-down Blue Devils team.

"Last few minutes, I feel like we ran out of gas," McMillan said. "Everybody knows we don't have much depth. We gave it all we could but I think we ran out of gas."